250 Thompsons Point Rd, Portland, ME 04102
This place is extremely easy to find and depending on when you go parking is available but definitely busy on a rainy day. There’s a bit of a walk no matter where you park. You do have to pay for parking, I’m not sure how much per hour but I paid $6 for 3ish hours.
You check in at the desk to enter the museum. Reserve your tickets in advance because most of the time they are sold out. Tickets are $16 for anyone over the age of 17m. I for one stand firmly in the belief that parents should not have to pay at ANY child dedicated place, as we arent they ones actually playing– but anyway thats a whole nother conversion for another time. Once you’ve checked in you can go around the corner to the right where there is a giant climbing wall. My kids do not like this area. It’s always crowded and the spaces on between the platforms are quiet small. There is a small dress up area near here. I see mostly 4-5y here while little siblings watch from the once bench in front of a curtain where the dressed up kids emerge. I’ve never been to the actual theater itself as I’ve never found anything to interesting going on inside and I doubt my kids would ever sit for one of their shows.
You can exit out of a side door (and return) to a outdoor playground. We’ve been to it a couple times but we always end up going back in whether it’s bc my 4y gets bored on it or it’s too hit as its directly in the sun. I don’t remember the details of the playground but I know there’s some slides kids can go down. There’s a few ways up and down, some being stairs and others being ladders.
You can take an elevator or the stairs up to the second floor. The elevator takes forever so unless you have a stroller you might as well just take the stairs. The second floor they call the neighborhood. It had your typical pretend play areas tightly close together. The first thing you’ll probably notice is the big red fire truck. Kids can climb stairs up to the bench inside and pretend to drive to put out a fire. There’s buttons to activate the siren and horn. Slide down a firepole in your fireman outfit to complete the idea that they’re real firemen/women.
Across from the firetruck is a Dr’s office. It has all the things you’d think would be at a Dr’s office. Put on a lab coat and grab one of the stuffies to operate on. Give them xray, check their heartbeat, measure their height. A pretend sink is in the corner so your little dr can wash their hands in between patients.
Leave the Dr’s office to the right is a train car and a conductor car. There’s not much to this exhibit. They can dress up and ring a bell while their passages sit in the car behind them. Next to this is an airplane station. You can load suitcases onto a conveyer belt and drop them onto the floor. It’s a very small belt fitting 1 maybe 2 suitcases. Inside the airplane you can put on captains clothes and read the radar and push a button. On the other side opposite the belt is a place to store suitcases.
There is a lobster shack and a a food stand next to the airport area. Weigh some lobsters or lay them on ice for display. In the food stand you can serve people a few different foods including the lobster. There’s a few plates and utensils for customers (aka parents) to use.
Across from the food area is the post office. Kids can dress as a postal worker and deliver mail to a few spots around the second floor. The last exhibit in the neighborhood is a boat. You can steer the boat and honk its horn. Kids can also pull up lobster from a lobster trap to then bring to the lobster shack.
Off in the corner is a gated area for children 3 and younger. For the most part this rule is followed by most. I have seen other older kids in it but they soon discovered it wasn’t fun enough for them. There is a soft climbing area in the shape of a castle for littles to enjoy. On the outside of the castle are holes cut in the shape of sea animals and kids match the cutouts to the castle holes, although with a bit of twisting and turning they all fit through even when not matched. There’s a very tiny tunnel at the bottom of the castle which toddlers can crawl into and come to a mirror. This is incredibly small and more than one toddler in here is asking for elbows or knees to the face. There’s a lighthouse in a corner which toddlers, if they’re tall enough, can look through a peephole in the inside and see what’s going on outside the light house. If they aren’t tall enough well they can just look out from which they came. They’ll see the same thing. In the center is the big/main attraction of this toddler area. It’s a circular soft area with a cone in the middle. From the cone blows air. Put a ball on top and watch the ball float in the air. Have your kid put their hand over the cone and the ball will fall. There’s some stuffed animals here too but they don’t float as well as the two beach balls. Also in the toddler area is another gated area meant for non-crawlers, maybe even crawlers. It’s filled with books and some three touch and feel spots on the wall. Honestly for me this was just a good area to breastfeed while my 17m looked around. Right outside the gated toddler area is a dark reading nook for kids.
That’s it for the neighborhood. Down the hall, left of the firetruck is an area that in my opinion is such a waste of space. But alas I will talk about them and give you an idea of what’s here. The first thing in walking the hall is a Koren language learn to write wall. I’ve never seen kids here during any of our visits but I have seen writing on the boards. Keep going past this and there’s an area about a particular book they are showcasing. It’s been different every time I go and my kids check it out for less than two minutes. This are is never too crowded. It’s again another nice place to nurse because not many people stop here if you’re concerned with privacy. Behind this area is a woodshed area. It’s only open certain times and I’m unsure if it’s a consistent schedule or if the museum decides day by day. I’ve tried this area once before with my 4y and it was chaotic that we ended up leaving and not making anything. Should you decide to stay, there are actual working tools for kids to use and build what they like or whatever the museum decides the craft of the day is. Ive been before and the craft involved your typical crafts supplies; crayons, cardboard, glue, paper, etc. So that’s the entire second floor.
The third floor is…..busy. Very busy. Whether you take the stairs or the elevator you’ll come to a S.T.E.A.M room although I’m not sure what makes it that. Inside this room is another dr center but this time for animals. Grab an animal and their clipboard to find more information on the animal. Operate on a table with your typical vet tools and put them back in their carrier when you’re done. There’s some tables with a basket of books occupying each one. There’s a honey bee exhibit in here where you can see honeybees doing their work. Exit this room and come to some under water animals. Mostly fish. There is a touch tank and a hand washing station for before and after touching. There’s not a whole lot of variety to touch but kids can touch star fish, anemone and one small type of shark. Again I don’t know if the touch tank is open on a consistent schedule of if it’s day by day decided. There’s a small pretend to camp are with a tent and a canoe.
Leave this area to the right and come to the most chaotic, never a dull moment exhibit. The water stations. Plan on your kid getting very very wet. They have aprons for kids to wear but not enough of them and they still get wet wearing them. The pool tables are filled with plastic balls and different things kids can move around to see how water affects it. For example spinning wheels, small dump buckets etc. There’s a bigger water pool with a area to put plastic balls through to a tornado and watch it go up and around and back down again. Water is spouting out of pretty much every spot in these two water pools. It is extremely wet and signs through out here that warn of the extremely slippery floor. Keep walking and come to a ball area. Buil tracks and send a ball through it. There’s some small areas here in which you can put a ball through some holes and watch it go down the wall and see what bucket it lands in. This area is also always very busy and lots of upset kids because kids run into said tracks and knock over other kids builds. Not purposefully but it’s a pretty tight area to squeeze as many kids that want to be here in.
Across from the water station is a light room. You can build with blocks on a table with a white light underneath to see what kind of shadows and colors can be made. They have cut out some shapes for kids to make shadows on a wall inside this room as well. A wall of cylinders is usually well occupied in this room. You move the cylinders around and they change color depending on where they are moved too.
This museum is good for all ages and kids do love it and that’s what matters. I as a parent hate it. I thought it was much better at its old location. I feel like the second floor is both wasted space and too much all together. The exhibits here are so close together when they could of easily spread these things out more and have a bigger variety of things. I think the dedicated book spotlight is such a waste. I get it, focus on local writers etc but from a kids stand point they don’t care about that they want to play and that’s not really what you can do in this area. The food station is so incredibly lame. There isn’t a lot of food to play with and the are is so small. When I say they could have easily spread these areas out, instead of the book and Korean writing area, some of the neighborhood exhibits could be here and could be expanded to be bigger and better. There isn’t much in the toddler section that captures attention of the littles except the air out of the cone thing. The water station I would say is the coolest but again it’s so busy and chaotic in here for my anxiety that I’m ready to call it after 20 minutes if that. The ball area I have the same feelings for. It’s cool but younger kids just wanna throw the balls while older kids are trying ro build and it just ends up being a disaster. Like I said, kids definitely can burn out some energy here, mine sure do but from a parents perspective it anxiety inducing.
little Movers Maine 